


Butterfly Effect

by Scarlettwrites



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 1940s, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, F/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 15:39:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16370387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlettwrites/pseuds/Scarlettwrites
Summary: Ever heard of the butterfly effect? Where everything has an outcome and one choice can lead to a million different outcomes?You are part of the New & Innovative Tech Dept. of Stark Industries. Since Thanos, the world has changed and everyone is looking for a way to change it, a way to go back. In short, a time machine is created and you find yourself walking through to the 1940s where you meet a young Steve and Bucky. Will you find your way home? What could possibly change if you hang around the 40s for a bit?





	Butterfly Effect

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a couple of hours, honestly it was just cause I watched butterfly effect and thought of it, this is my condensed version, because otherwise I would write a novel and I need to get back to Wise Guy anyways. I'm so sorry it's so fast paced, but hey, it's a good concept.

No, I didn’t want to work for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but I also didn’t want to go to jail. Looking back though, I’m glad that Natasha and Clint were the ones to find me, this job wasn’t terrible. I had a lot of knowledge in the way things worked, and while I assumed I would become the Avengers’ own person mechanic, working on this new tech was pretty cool.

Back in 2013 I graduated High School and immediately tried to become an engineer. The family up and moved so I could go to a fancy school in NYC and a ring of villains coerced me into using alien tech to build weapons after the big attack. Yep, I was working the behind the scenes of that operation… funny how things work out. After it was busted up, we were all arrested, but Natasha and Clint approached me about working for Stark instead, and naturally, I agreed.

So flash forward to 2019 and here I am, working on the hopeful solution to Thanos fucking up the entirety of humanity. Looking for a way to go back and stop him, now that he’s ruined everyone’s lives and just… fucked off somewhere else.

A lot of things have changed. Some people have accepted the fact that half the word is gone, governments have taken the absent members’ fortunes and used them to solve economic crises. Regardless, nobody accepts the cost, because as our star-spangled golden boy once said, ‘we don’t trade lives.’

“Stop daydreaming Y/L/N, we have shit to do.” Someone yells from the catwalk. Burt Massey was my manager, tall and bulky… a total meathead, he runs the new tech department’s engineer team, the official name is much longer and much more boring, branch off Mr. Stark’s monopoly.

“Sorry,” I yelled back, “just can’t help but daydream about a way to stop Novak from eating my lunch again”

“I said I was sorry, I thought it was someone else’s!” Novak interjected, the three of us laughed at the banter and got back to work on the new machine plans Banner had dropped off. You see, they do the designing, we do the building. Right now, the mad man has, with the help of Tony, designed a machine that may allow us to travel back to before everything went down the hole. I think it’s just hopeful wishing, but they write me checks and give me a place to stay, so I don’t voice my opinion.

The end of the day came quick, so I head up to the common room of the workshop to clock out when I see a curly haired, altogether apathetic looking man walk my way.

“Banner.” I say with a smile, he beams back a smile so obviously filled with nervousness and sadness

“Y/N! How is everything going?” He stops to chat, unusual to say the least.

“Uh, yeah the machine is done, they’re fini-“

“No, everything with you. I haven’t been around long to check in on everyone who was here when I…” he trailed off, unsure of how to put it.

“I get it, Bruce. I’ve been okay. Andrew split, but it was pretty rocky for a year before that. Nat and I are still golden, I’m about to go see her now at the compound. I, er… sorry.”

“No, no. It’s fine. I’m sorry to hear about Andrew, he wasn’t right for you anyways. You need someone who is going to protect this.” He says, as he motions to my mind. Bruce Banner was by far, my biggest fan in the workshop, I understood this tech better than most and if it were up to him and not Burt, I would probably be heading up this project.

“Thanks, I’ll see you later.”

“Right, Y/N I hate to ask but later I have to meet with the team about a plan. I hate to ask, but system checks are at 9 pm tonight, I was going to come by but Tony pushed the meeting to 8, I won’t make it in time.”

“They have to be run at 9?”

“The need to be run 12 hours before we test it. The truth is, we designed this to only activate every half day for safety reasons.”

“So you could have 12 hours to destroy it if something went wrong, I’ll stay, it’s fine.”

“…there’s that brain.” Bruce smiled, fumbling through his pocket, “I will give you this, my key. It’s a 24 hour access type of deal, password is ‘strongest avenger’ and number code is 8595. Just make sure to get it back to me, this way you can still go see Nat.”

“Thanks, Bruce.

* * *

 

> **NATASHA, PLEASE LET ME IN**

I texted her repeatedly, as the guards talked about me not-so-discreetly.

> **ITS SO ANNOYING OUT HERE**
> 
> **THE GUARDS ARE HITTING ON ME AGAIN PLEASE**

“Boys, please stop bothering her” Nat said as she opened the door. I laughed with her as we walked in.

It’s true, that things were slightly normal despite everything that had gone wrong. We were friends before, but now with everyone that’s gone, Nat has grown soft. She and Clint probably order me to come see them every week for dinner and twice to check in.

“How is everyone?”

“Steve is a mess, still. But he wont talk to us so….” Nat looked at me with a blank face. “You’re going to talk to him, ask him about Bucky, please Y/N”

“Me? Why?”

“Because he’s only met you maybe three times? Coming from you it’s just a girl wanting to know about the avengers.”

“I mean, I can try.” I said hesitantly. Nat smiled and pointed towards the hall, I knew where they all stayed, so I was left to find my way there.

I walked to the open door and knocked, peering into the plain room.

“Oh, Y/N. Hey.” Steve was reading a journal.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you something…”

“Yeah?”

“What was… I mean back before you were… Can you tell me about the war? Or before the war?”

“You really wanna know all that?”

“Sure.” I said, realizing that wasn’t a yes, I elaborated. “I want to know what life was like before heroes and villains, when it was just about… I don’t know, love and family.”

“Well, it was just as hard before the war, but yeah sit down. I can tell you about some of it.”

It worked, I sat down on his bed next to him and smiled, in all honesty it may have been a favor for Nat, but I was excited to hear about the past.

“When I was really young, it was just me and my mom. Her name was Sarah, and she was the greatest woman you’d ever met. She passed away just before the war, and I felt like I had no other option, I had to fight.”

“Steve, you can start before the war. What was it like in Brooklyn in the 20s or 30s?”

“Well, my childhood was comprised of me and Bucky… we did everything together, we were brothers without the blood ties. But he was always about the girls, I was more about sticking up for the guys like me, or the girls being bothered by some guy in the street. I fought a lot, although Bucky usually intervened. We would take girls to the pier by Coney or take ‘em out dancing. School was school, work was work. The world was changing with Howard Stark on the rise, and it looked like a bright future, but most of my memories now are from the war, and the guys I fought alongside of. Life back then was like life now, just more conversation and time together.”

“I’m sorry, Steve. I know that losing him must have been like the last piece of who you are is just… I lost my parents that day too. Half the word and that resulted in both of them, but I guess it would have been worse if one had lost the other if they had lost me…”

“It’s okay, we’re gonna get them back.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. He smiled softly and turned to hug me. The thing about Steve Rogers, he may be this seemingly closed off hero, but inside he huts just as much. I embraced him for a few seconds, realizing maybe Nat had been right, he just needed to talk about it for a minute. He went on to tell me about the different reasons he fought people and how Bucky had taken care of him, he told me of their favorite spot in the 40s, and how it had lasted all these years. PJ’s, originally opened in the 1920s but now it was called something else. I thought about how it would have been nice to take him and Bucky after we got everyone back, because now I believed we would accomplish it. Dinner was an overfill of our conversation, everyone sat around and told life stories before they were in SHIELD or the Avengers, Nat shared some memories from the KGB that were a little more light-hearted than the horrors we knew she went through. It was a therapeutic night, and a motivating conversation.

When the team left for their meeting, I headed back to the workshop to run tests, arriving at 8:45 PM, I had a few minutes, so I walked into the breakroom and stole one of Novak’s Bud Light cans he kept hidden behind a sparkling water box. Before I popped it open, I heard the whirring of the machine we had been working on. I dropped the can and ran to the room only to catch a glimpse of the machine working… It was running, and someone was walking into it. I yelled out for them to stop, but they went right through. My mind was racing, I couldn’t call Banner, so I grabbed a napkin from the break room and wrote a note for him giving the time and an apology for not stopping the figure. I went to the computer in front of the machine and looked at it in awe as I saw the systems running perfectly… it worked. I tilted my head, listening to the countdown of the machine’s portal closing. The bright purple light in the center of the machine sparkled as the lady counted down, 10 seconds left…

I walked towards it, 7 seconds left.

Focusing on the scene on the other side, a wooden door. 4 seconds.

I stepped through without a second thought. 1 second.

The noise behind me was that of a machine powering down, as the light left. I opened the wooden door and walked out of a shed in what looked like NYC from a history book. I walked down the road, my heart beating faster, clutching my apology napkin. The machine had worked, and it left me in old New York, but how old? Was I here before the war? Catching a glance at a newspaper, I stopped dead in my tracks, it was 1941.

Most people in my situation would probably cry, or scream, and yeah I thought about it. I looked around for some familiar ground before asking someone where I was. The stranger looked at my clothing and gave me a strange glance as they said Brooklyn.

“Wait, can you tell me where PJ’s is?”

“Why, certainly doll, it’s this way.” The man put his arm around me and started walking.

“No, I don’t want to go with you, I just need to know where to find it.”

“Well come on, I’ll show you!” He persisted.

“Stop it.” Another voice came from behind, and I was in shock when I recognized those sad blue eyes. Steve Rogers stood before me, at the age of maybe 20, looking ready to fight.

“Steve, come on… wait what’s happening here?” A young man asked, he looked familiar too, dressed in uniform.

“There you are!” I said as I pulled from the stranger and walking towards the two. “I was just asking about that place we were going to meet at, but I found you!”

Steve’s friend seemed to catch on as he motioned to walk past him, as I did, he and Steve turned with me. We walked in silence until we were around the next corner.

“Thank you, I just don’t know what I was thinking asking him for help.”

“Guys can be real jerks, especially to beautiful women.” Steve’s friend said, smiling. “My name is James, this is Steve. We were just going to celebrate my enlistment,” he held out his hand to me, “would you like to join us?”

My heart sank as I realized who was standing in front of me, it was James Buchannan Barnes. I had never met Bucky, but if I had something tells me I would have fallen instantly in love. While I knew I should be trying to find whoever slipped in before me, I had no idea where to start. I put my hand in his and smiled brightly as I nodded, figuring Steve might be the reason we were in this era.

“My name is… Victoria.” I lied, as we chatted on the way to our destination.

We turned a few corners and came to Coney Island, where Steve had told me they took all their dates. Two girls were waiting there for Steve and Bucky. I frowned a little imagining being a 5th wheel when Bucky handed one of them some cash.

“Mom says be home before it gets too late, got it?” Bucky said, paly punching her arm.

“Got it.” The brunette smiled and looked at me, before whispering something to the boys that made them giggle.

“What?” I asked, assuming it was about me.

“She said you’re cuter than most the girls we convince to hang around us.” Bucky said confidently, “She’s right.”

I felt myself blushing, I was by no means perfect, but I attracted a few guys. I looked to a sign that spoke of enlisting once I noticed that Steve was staring at it. He looked away and I remembered the story of how he became Captain America, it was this night that he spoke with the man that would change his life. As guilty as I felt for not stopping him and as sad as I was that I couldn’t explore my interest in Bucky. I knew I had to keep myself from altering anything that put the future in jeopardy.

“I- I have to go.” I said, I wasn’t sure where I would go but I couldn’t stay.

“Oh, come on we’re just joking Victoria.” Bucky smiled, and he put his hand on my back. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want, but you should. We’re having a good time tonight. It’s the last time we’ll be together for a while, so we’re doing everything Brooklyn has to offer, right Steve?” He looked to his left.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“He does this, every time. See? Now you have to stay, you can’t let a soldier spend his last night alone, can you, doll?” He moved to face me, giving me the sweetest puppy dog eyes that I had ever seen.

“Fine, I will help you find Steve before I go.” I smiled and started walking, “But let’s settle this now, James. I am not your date tonight.” When I turned around to ask if he was coming, Bucky sat there with his hands in his pockets, chuckling.

“I think I like you, you’re pretty funny.” He said as he started to follow.

* * *

 

“I say we take a break and try for one of those.” Bucky said, pointing at a stuffed elephant.

“That’s not how we’re going to find Steve.” Bucky pulled at my purse and I turned around. “What is it?”

“Let me have some fun and win you that animal and then we can go check the Stark showcase, Steve is a punk, he gets lost all the time and he usually ends up wherever there’s a crowd. Makes it easier to find a guy twice his size to fight.” Bucky handed the attendant at the booth some change in exchange for a few baseballs. He chucked one and knocked the top bottle off.

“He fights a lot?”

“Yeah, especially lately. He’s been real angry since he can’t join us across the pond.” He tosses the ball up and catches it, “Sorry, don’t mean to spill my guts.”

“No, it’s okay. I, uh I have a friend, he’s kind of like Steve. Always looking to save everyone.”

“Yeah, even if it means killing himself.” Bucky throws the next ball and misses completely. I pretended not to notice and asked another question.

“You stop his fights, don’t you?”

“Not until I have to. I wanna see him win, ya know? I let him take it unless it the guy is twice his size or he’s in real trouble.” He throws the final ball and the attendant announces that he’s a winner. He hands me the elephant, and I thank him. He motions for me to walk and then offers his arm. I want to, but I know it’s a bad idea, so I try to make it seem like I got distracted but then I did.

“Wait, cotton candy!” I almost yell.

“Want some?” Bucky asks, laughing at my excitement. I nod and he walks up.

“Oh, I have cash, hold on.” He pays in the meantime and hands me one of the spools. I handed him a dime, thinking about the value. He looked at me with a smirk, before eating some of his cotton candy.

“Put that away.” He said, as he turned towards the Stark Showcase, looking a little less excited.

“We can go see it if you want, maybe we’ll just stumble upon Steve.” I said, realizing this is his last night before everything goes downhill. I started to feel sad for him and the guilt built up in me knowing that I could stop everything- but at what cost?

Bucky stood at the entrance, I was nervous to mess thing up but I acted anyways, looping my arm into his and holding onto his upper bicep while I ate my cotton candy. He smiled at me, baby blue eyes staring directly into mine and we walked into the showcase. It was surreal, seeing this hovering car, I couldn’t take my eyes off it, meanwhile I was still holding onto Bucky and he didn’t seem to mind.

“Doll?” he looked at me once the presentation was over- or really once the car fell apart.

“Yeah?”

“You know, I know you don’t know me or Steve, but while I’m gone, he’s gonna need someone. You seem like a real great girl, Victoria. Maybe you and him could hang around and talk from time to time?”

“You’re that worried about him?”

“I just wanna make sure he’ll be alright.” Bucky said, “Plus if you stick around, it’ll give me a good reason to come back.” He put his right hand on mine and smiled.

“I’m sorry Bucky, I just… I won’t even be in New York much longer… I-my family leaves tomorrow for Virginia.”

“Right.” Silence hung for a little bit, and I felt more guilt now than before by hurting him. Unsure of what to do, I acted on impulse, kissing Bucky’s cheek.

“You’re a real good guy, Bucky. Steve will be okay.” I lied, “Everything for you guys is gonna work out.” I lied again. “I’ll be back in New York someday, I’ll look you up, I promise.” That one was the worst, I felt myself choking up already. I gave him a strong hug, and in the moment, he probably thought I was falling for him- maybe I was. But to me, that hug was to carry him through what he was about to endure, because no one would be there for him for a very, very long time.

“Guys!” We both turned our heads and pulled away at Steve’s voice.

“Hey punk, where were you?” Bucky slapped Steve’s back and laughed. From upset to happy in two seconds.

“I enlisted.” Steve said, “I got in.”

My stomach sank, but I’m sure Bucky’s sank lower.

After an awkward silence I noticed that people were leaving the pier except for one familiar looking figure moving towards the end.

“I have to go, I’m sorry I-“ I started after the figure. Steve and Buck were left in conversation while I approached the figure. Catching onto me, the person stopped and turned around with no hesitation. Glowing eyes locked onto mine as I inhaled sharply. Alone at the end of the pier, I stood with the frost giant himself, Loki.

* * *

 

“What the actual fuck? Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” I said quietly.

“Sh, mortal, you know nothing of the things I can do.” He replied.

“Your brother said he saw you die, this time it was real.”

“It’s always ‘real’ when I plan ahead.” He relaxed against the side railing.

“I just… why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I thought, once I found my way to Earth that Thor and the others would have beaten him. When they hadn’t, I watched from the shadows, planning out a way to set it all straight.”

“So you really aren’t a bad guy anymore?”

“I never was, I was merely selfish. But now, my oaf of a brother and fake of a father, they mean something to me. Father is gone, Thor is… alone as it would seem.”

“So what’s your plan then, why 1941?”

“If we can get the space stone, the Tesseract, we can destroy it, and nothing in the future would be the way it is now.”

“If we do that, it could mess up history… would Steve and Bucky even be in danger? What would it mean for Captain America… the NY attack… I’ll have never been recruited…”

“Sacrifices for the greater good, young one.” He looked at me with sympathy, but he was right.

“What is your plan then?”

“Get the cube, destroy it, get back home.”

“And how do you plan to do the last part if you destroy the thing we can use to get home?”

“I brought this.” He says as he hold up a small box. “Your scientists created a way home, why wouldn’t they?”

“Loki, you need to use that now, we need to go back and plan. This could work but we need everyone else to help us.” I tried to grab it, sending it flying into the water.

“Shit.” I said as I climbed over the edge, but Loki was in the water fast than I could finish swearing. I jumped in to help him find it when he popped on the surface, pulling me up from my sinking into the water.

“Troublesome human.”

“Asshole! Is it ruined?”

“Only one way to find out.” He hands me the box as we float. I open it and look at the blue touchpad, everything looked to be working.

“Why would you give this to me?”

“Because if you think it’s wrong of me to do this on my own, then maybe it is. I was a ‘bad guy’ and I’m not sure what right it.”

“Honestly, it’s weird that you aren’t this monster anymore, you’re weirdly considerate, kind of freaks me out.”

“I feel no evil intentions anymore, I am adjusting as well, feeling these things for other people, it is strange.” He laughed a little and I looked back at the box before gazing up to the lights from Coney where I had left Steve and Vucky. Saying goodbye to the life I might have had. I pressed the button, and grabbed onto the Asgardian.

* * *

 

After a purple flash we were… not home? We were in a metal room, with a picture of stars on the right, no- wait those were real stars, this was a window. Planets and space debris passed by the window as I watched it… where were we? The room was covered in bright colors, blankets and bedrolls everywhere, like someone was having a slumber party.

“I know this place… this is my ship.” Loki said immediately. “Brother!” he yelled.

“Wait, what? What ship? We’re in space? Loki didn’t you die in space?” I started to freak out when Thor walked in the door.

“Loki- what is it… is this one of our people?”

“No, listen, we need to go find the guardians.”

As they talked, I realized what this meant. We could stop him. This was before everything changed.

“Loki, this means you have the Tesseract, we can destroy it before.”

“Yes, and we need to find the guardians and get to earth to destroy the rest.”

“Forget the guardians, let’s get to earth!”

“MORTAL! You cannot expect to solve everything in a matter of moments and you are speaking rudely to a son of Odin, now what is happening?” Thor boomed.

“Thor, we need to get to Nidavellir, send a distress signal once there.”

“Loki.” I interjected “You know what’s going to happen.”

He nodded and pulled the Tesseract from thin air. Thor looked disappointed, but was open to explanations, which we gave him. For someone like him, I suppose time travel isn’t the craziest thing.

“This can be destroyed there, and the Guardians will come to the signal.” He turned to me “You however, need to get to earth and handle the mind and time stones, those could easily be used to bring back the space stone.” I nodded, and the two of them led me to an escape pod. They set coordinates, and I found myself getting tired.

“You’ll be on Earth in about 8 hours. Sleep, and when you wake up, you’ll be back with everyone.” Loki said, I nodded and situated myself to sleep before giving him a quiet thank you. “Thor, your brother, he’s good. Genuinely, he had the chance to do everything and risk messing it all up. He didn’t.” Thor smiled, and they saw me off.

I fell asleep, somehow on this spaceship flying through space. When I woke up, the door opened and a familiar face looked at me in horror.

“Victoria?” “James??” We said in unison.

“What are you doing here?” He said “You- you should be… at least really old…” He said.

“It’s a long story, and trust me I would love to tell you, but I need to talk to Steve okay?”

“Yeah, he’s actually on his way- Shuri just told me.”

“Who’s that?”

“She’s a friend, helped me out with recovery, another long story.”

“I’d love to hear that, too.” I smiled as he helped me out of the pod and walked me to the palace or house or citadel- whatever the Wakanda residents called it.

“T’Challa, this is-“

“I’m Y/N, I work for Stark, and I need your help.”

“Y/N?” Bucky said

“I’m sorry,” I said to him, “I will explain everything but I need everyone here. It’s really important.”

* * *

 

T’Challa nodded and led me to the room where the king and leader’s discussed their business. I leaned against the wall and looked at the touch pad button, it had been a blessing and a curse, running in after Loki. As time passed by I thought of all the different outcomes that could have stemmed from a single detail in the past.

“Y/N. Everyone is here.” Bucky said coldly, I couldn’t help but notice the obvious change in his demeanor. I couldn’t blame him either, I was a lie that he remembered for half a century.

Everyone piled into the room, and I went on to explain what had happened, where I was from, why we needed to destroy the stones. It sounded crazy coming from my mouth, but somehow it translated, especially once I explained how much I knew about the stones and Thanos.

“So how do we destroy them?” Steve asked, seems as though he was unphased by my appearance, maybe he didn’t remember me the way Bucky did.

“I have a plan for that” a young girl stepped forward and pulled up a holographic screen, “I can get the stone out and we can destroy it. It will not cause Vision any harm.”

“Yes, YES!” I yelled, everyone staring at me, “Thor and Loki are destroying the Tesseract and the Reality stone, and they’re getting Thor an axe that can kill Thanos, we can do this.”

The rest of the meeting or whatever you want to call it went by fast, plans were made and put into action. Thor and the Asgardians as well as the Guardians of the Galaxy showed up and boy, were they ready to go. Gamora was heated and short, Peter angry at hearing what happened in the other timeline, the rest just as ready to get revenge.

“Y/N. I wanna talk to you, real quick.” I heard as we were leaving the room. I turned to Steve, the one that I knew, and looked into his eyes. It may seem hard to believe but he had kept the same look from 1941 until now- still trying to save everyone.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Bucky- James? He uh, he never forgot you, he was always talking about how when he got back you’d look him up and he’d take you out… even now he still holds onto that night. I just want you to know that… you made him a stronger man. He was strong for you.” Tears immediately started building.

“I- I am so happy that I could do that, but I can’t stay in this timeline, it’d ruin everything. He would be fine without me, I have to go home.”

“Now?” Bucky chimed in from the doorway.

“I mean, not _right_ now, but really soon, yeah.” I said as the tears started falling. Bucky came over and hugged me, wrapping his metal arm around my waist and his hand into my hair.

“I promise you, I will find a way to love you in the future, or the past, or wherever you’re going.” He whispered to me.

“You can’t control yourself like that, Buck. When I go back to the future, things could be so different… people could be dead or the whole outcome could be changed. I could be one of the ones erased, we don’t know how this is going to work out.”

“I never stopped thinking about you.” He said to me, and without thinking I kissed him, long and slow and full of sadness and anger, happiness and disbelief. It lasted a few moments, but it would stay with me forever.

I won’t ever stop thinking about you either.”

* * *

 

When the time came to say goodbye, I gave everyone my best and wished them good luck. Banner and Shuri made alterations to our button to get home, allowing us to choose time and location to get back. We thanked everyone and pressed the button taking our chances. Everyone left us to get home, and I turned to Loki.

“I need to go back to 1941. I need to make sure Bucky and I don’t meet.” I said, “It will take 2 minutes then we can go back, I just have to correct that part of the timeline.

“Okay, I trust you, here.” I chose the time and location from my memory of the newspaper and time Loki made his way through the portal and hit the button. Purple flashed and we were in the middle of the street I met the stranger on, I turned and saw Steve and Bucky walking our way, as they passed us, me and Bucky caught eyes for a moment and he smiled before continuing to walk past us to the pier.

“It’s done.” I said.

“Already? You didn’t do anything.” Loki said, confused.

“Exactly.” I plugged in the coordinates for home and we traveled back to the entrance of the compound.

Running in, I looked around at everyone in the common room.

“Y/N?” Natasha sat up from the couch. “Did we have dinner plans?”

“Uh, no… I found someone and thought he’d be better off here…” I said as Loki approached. Thor sprang up.

“Hello, brother.” He said, and just like that, Thor ran to embrace his sibling.

“Y/N!” Steve rang out, “Nice to see you, Bucky! Y/N is here!”

“Hey Steve.” I said, smiling. “I wanted to ask you and Bucky something too.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“I know you guys can’t get drunk or anything, but go with me to grab a drink?”

“I’ll go, I can still get drunk.” Clint said, laughing.

“Sorry old man, this is for the even older men.” I said as Bucky walked out of the kitchen. He was as beautiful as ever, and although in this timeline I already knew him, I couldn’t help but feel like I would never have a chance.

“Where we goin, doll?”

“Where are _you two_ going, you mean. I don’t do bars and drinks, too loud. Plus, Sharon is coming by.” Steve said, eliciting an ‘aww’ from the crowd.

“Alright, so it was going to be a surprise but Brooklyn.” I said. Bucky dropped his sandwich in the trash and put on his jacket.

“I’m in, it’s been a long time.” He said, “that’s a drive though, better get going.”

“You guys can stay at the tower if you want, it’s still ours, but it’s dark and creepy… so honestly I, Robot you might fit right in.” Tony joked, eliciting an eye roll from the crowd.

“Nice one, will you arrange that then?” I asked.

“Sure, princess, just don’t break anything, or fix it if you do!” He said before getting up to call Happy.

* * *

 

The drive down was slow, I drove so Bucky could look at the city as we went through it. It was quiet at first, and then, surprisingly enough it was broken with a question.

“So why Brooklyn? You’re usually so against going to the city.” Bucky asked.

“I have a place I wanted to take you.” I corrected myself “Steve and you, but yeah.”

“Doll, hours of a drive for a bar?”

“Can you tell me what happened with Thanos?”

“What do you mean, you were the planner.” He sounded so incredibly confused, I took a breath in.

“The time travel thing, it screwed a lot up, so I don’t have memories of the fight.”

“You came back in a pod, I found you, we went to T’Challa and you set a plan in action. We destroyed the mind stone, Thor came back with the space crew that he met and that axe and he took Thanos’ head right off.”

“And then everything went back to normal?”

“It’s been 6 months Y/N, why are you just now wondering about this?”

“Because to me it was 6 hours ago.” I said, “I just got back and it’s like I blacked out for 6 months. As far as I can tell, everything up until the day Thanos came is the same, but after? I have no idea.

“Well, if you ever need anything clarified, I can do that for you.” He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. “Even if you don’t remember, in the months after, you helped everyone recover. You became a real morale booster.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, everyone loves you! You even got Loki accepted, which I guess was impossible before.”

“We’re here.” I said as we pulled into the empty parking garage.

We stopped at the tower to drop off bags, and Tony was kind of right, it was dark and scary. Putting my bag down in front of one of the rooms, Bucky put his down beside it.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Putting everything in one place, don’t worry doll, I’ll sleep next door, we’re just dropping them off for now.” He chuckled. “Think I’m trying to get you stuck on me?”

“Does that mean hitting on me?”

“Yes, and I’m not, don’t worry.”

“Bucky, do you think you-“ I stopped myself.

“What?”

“Do you think you would rather get a cab or drive to the bar?”

“We can drive, I can always drive back, metabolism and all.”

“Okay.” I said as I walked back to press the elevator button.

The door opened, and we got in, talking about more of the 6 months I missed. I learned after Thanos, the team reassembled, and no one was charged, the accords were discarded, and heroes had free reign again. It took a few months, but now no one had to sacrifice saving someone else for the sake of the law. I had apparently become the hero myself, being credited with the plan that saved the world. Although, that was only internally. The media credited Stark and Rogers with the win, calling it the ‘reunion that changed the world.’

When we got to the bar, Bucky smiled up at the sign before looking in through the window.

“It used to be called PJ's, but it was right here. I had my first drink here… Steve too.” He remembered.

“I thought it may be cool to step in, see what’s changed?”

“Nah, that’s alright. Let’s walk, I’ll tell you some stories.” He said, taking off his jacket and putting it around me. “Brooklyn get’s cold, some things never change.”

“Where do you want to go?” I asked, blushing and praying he couldn’t tell.

“Down here, and take a right.”

We followed his directions, and I knew from my experience exactly where we were going. We made a detour from the directions I remember and came to a bland complex of apartments.

“We used to live here- my family and I, I can still remember every inch of this block, but a lot has changed. This is all new.” I grabbed his arm and smiled. “New is okay, Bucky.” He started walking again and eventually we ended up at Coney, only to be swarmed by phone cameras and little kids asking questions.

“Yes, I can take it off, but I don’t like to” Bucky answered one of the children, showing off his arm a little bit. “I bet you wouldn’t want yours taken off either.” The little kid gasped and laughed. Parents thanked us for talking to them and once the crowd dispersed, we got a hot dog.

“Steve once told me you took all your dates here.” I said as I chewed.

“Yeah, but that never really worked out. Steve always ran off and I’d have to leave the girl, and that’s not exactly a great way to end a date.”

“You’re not gonna run after him now though, right?” He laughed at my joke and shook his head

“No, I’m all yours right now, doll.”

“Do you want some cotton candy?” I asked, noticing the cart in the background.

“Uh, yeah. I think it’s been about 80 years since I’ve had any so sure.” He stood up with me and we walked to the cart, he interacted almost the exact same way he did when I was back in the 40s. This was the same man I had been so intrigued with when I travelled back.

“Here you go, Doll.”

“I’m sorry Buck, I have cash.” I said and took out my wallet.

“Put that away,” he said as he took a bite, “thanks for bringing me here.”

“Yeah, anytime.” I walked with him to the end of the pier across the street and we sat there eating the rest of our cotton candy in the breeze.

“Buck.” I said “I wanna ask you something, but I don’t want it to make this all weird.”

“Shoot.”

“If this was 80 years ago or whatever, before you went off to the war. Do you think you would have brought me here?”

“Like on a date?”

“Yeah, do you think if we had met, and it was that time, that you would try to get me out here for Steve to run out on?”

“No,” he said, “I would have taken you dancing, and without Steve.” He smiled at me.

“So you wouldn’t have just brought me to Coney Island to get a stuffed animal and cotton candy?”

“I didn’t do that, ever.” He laughed, “Dates at Coney Island were only to keep the girls entertained while I tried not to lose Steve. He won the prizes and got the snacks, I would usually just try to convince the girl to kiss me by the end of the night.”

“So you never like, opened up?”

“I was a terrible guy to women in that way. I just wanted the love, none of the emotional stuff. Girl would’ve had to be a pretty amazing dame right off the bat to get me to share personal thoughts”

I recalled the way he opened his life to me when we had gone back in the 40s. He didn’t realize what he was saying to me. I looked over to him and smiled, tears forming.

“What’s wrong Y/N?”

“Nothing, I just think it’s sad that you never got a good real date.”

“Nah, it’s fine, plus I did, tonight.” He put his arm around me, and I leaned my head on his shoulder.

“This is a date?”

“This _isn’t_ a date?” He mocked me and kissed my forehead.

“Why did Steve bail?” I asked.

“Sharon or whatever.”

“Really? Cause I think he was wing-manning, Tony too. They were too ready to have us out here alone.”

“Yeah, but who were they doing it for? You or me?” He laughed.

“I guess we’ll never know.” I looked over to him.

“I don’t really care.” He said before lunging forward and kissing me. He was hungry for me, or at least that was how it felt. There was a neediness to it, and I returned it just as needy.

The last 24 hours had been a roller coaster ride, and I was happy to save the world, but happier to have found my soulmate, twice.


End file.
